Videogames Used to Train Terrorists? 265
kalpatin writes "Reuters reports that videogames are being used to train terrorists. The title Counter-Strike is apparently being used as a tool to prepare individuals for a mission: blowing up an oil tanker. The ultimate goal is to 'make the strait of Hormuz impassable, the Jomhouri-ye Eslami daily reported. About two-fifths of globally traded oil passes through the channel. The game illustrates a warning by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said in June that oil exports in the Gulf region could be seriously endangered if the United States made a wrong move on Iran.'"
WTF? (Score:2, Insightful)
Insane bastard writers article
Posts article
Slashdot picks it up
???
Profit?
I swear if someone is training this way they are about as dangerous as your average DnD player with a sharp pencil.
Ok, ignoring the important aspect... (Score:3, Insightful)
That said, of course, if the US had a copy of their mission, they'd know the plan and how to guard it pretty well.
Video games suck as training. (Score:5, Insightful)
I think that we should support any terrorist who wants to use a video game as "training". It will make them that much easier to capture.
Re:Video games suck as training. (Score:5, Insightful)
You want to learn to shoot? Spend 8 hours a day in shooting positions snapping in for a week. You want pressure and anxiety? Get arrested in Tijuana.
-Rick
It's propaganda, not training (Score:5, Insightful)
I strongly doubt that the Iranians would not use Iranian special forces to accomplish such a mission and instead use a 15 year old kid who played the game two times. Instead they want the kid to join the Iranian military or just shut up about the poor Iranian economy.
Train? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a friggin' game. A lot of US-made games show conflicts in areas in the Middle East. Oooh. Terrorist training!
Re:It's propaganda, not training (Score:3, Insightful)
Iran wouldn't just bottle up Hormuz, they'd have their extremist buddies throughout the Middle East attacking oil pipelines and refineries. Not to mention they'd start shunting serious money to the insurgents in Iraq & Afghanistan.
Oil prices would spike, violence would escalate, 2 countries would be further destabilized...
There's a reason the U.N. is telling America to pipe down and stop making threats.
Re:Not Surprising, and it's already being done (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally I'm of the opinion that if you are in someone else's country illegally as a member of an occupying army, then it's right, proper and decent of the local population to take potshots at you for any reason they so desire, but this is heading down the road of offtopic flamebait so I'll stop here.
How many have read the article? (Score:5, Insightful)
As for a potential cultural aspect of this? I'm sure some Islamic groups make an uproar anytime Muslims are shown as "terrorists" in popular western games. It happens on both sides, just because you only see one side of it doesn't mean that the other side is sitting still.
For God's sake, these are the same people who burn churches and embasseys when a cartoon comes out of their main prophet, do you really think CS missions like Arab Streets simply go by unnoticed in their culture.
The bottom line is that no one is banning a single thing (that takes care of about 20% of the posts I've read so far), no one is doing anything different today than they have in the past and...
VIDEO GAMES STILL SUCK FOR LEARNING HOW TO USE FIREARMS!!
Let's not take this too seriously. There's nothing substantial to see here aside from people who are making this into something that it simply isn't.
Counter-Strike?! (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd think a better "training" tool would be a Rainbow Six/Rogue Spear type game, where the object is to succeed without the enemy getting a shot off.
This is total FUD BS. Oh noes! Teh terrorists are using verbal speech to perfect their terrorist tactics!!! Must ban verbal speech!!!1!
Re:Guns used to train terrorist too.... (Score:3, Insightful)
How did this transition from terrorism to Iran? (Score:5, Insightful)
As for terrorist groups, the tactical mission of closing the Strait of Hormuz is completely out of reach, and even if it weren't, how's Counterstrike going to help them plan? I imagine that sea-borne terrorists would use light boats or diving gear and place improvised mines into the narrow shipping lanes. So how do you propose they use Counterstrike to plan their mission?
Right, you have no idea. That's because this story, like many others, gets written before anybody thinks about it. This is written simply because it fits the convenient script according to which "They're evil and they're plotting" - which is scare tactic that's supposed to make it easier for us to abandon our freedoms and turn them over to the government.
Re:Nope. (Score:1, Insightful)
There, you forgot to properly emphasize the most important insight. Computer games are not good training instruments because they are designed to be interesting, fun, entertaining. They're GAMES. If they actually dealt with hard problems in any respect, nobody would buy and play them.
Re:Ok, ignoring the important aspect... (Score:2, Insightful)
Please.
Videogames do not train you how to shoot a gun. They don't teach you how to handle yourself in a lifethreatening situation. They don't help make you run faster.
They are a good teambuilding exercise, but certainly not a core piece of developing a person into a deadly machine.
That said, that title/summary is very very misleading. The article should have been - 8 independant game developers create CS like game with more realistic terrorist target. No where in here do I see the Government sponsoring the game, or training terrorists with it.
And I promise you - if it picks up widespread exposure perfectly patriotic, Republican Americans will pick up this game, and play on the terrorists side. Why? Because inevitably people that suck at shooters always play the good guys.
Re:Video games suck as training. (Score:3, Insightful)
MOD UP (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Video games suck as training. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:So what is a "right move on Iran"? (Score:4, Insightful)